Portland.BloggersPub

New Testament Scholar Ben Witherington demolishes Pagan Christianity… “First a word of disclaimer. I know Frank Viola, indeed for some years he has asked me loads of good and telling questions via email. I did not really know what his take was on various matters, but I gladly answered his questions. It is interesting to me that this book appears to take no notice of various of these answers which I have given, nor are any of my works found in the bibliography at the end of the book. Perhaps I have missed something in the minutiae of the truly…

And praying about buying this house…

Here’s a cool light bulb moment for me… In working through the Eph 4/Frost/Hirsch categories of leadership and gifting (apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd/pastor and teacher) we’ve identified where I and the rest of our elders are at. It even helped us in identifying a need on our elder team and filling it (someone with the giftings/sensitivity of an evangelist. As the one with the initial church planting impulse and the desire to continue to push us outward to new things, I’ve felt that even though I’ve been the main teacher of evergreen (up until we started a second gathering) that…

As I waited for the westbound MAX Thursday, I started watching the action at a construction site across the street. A massive yellow machine, several stories tall on one end, whirred and clacked and drilled into the earth. A drill! A real, live drill.

You see, I’ve spent a good part of this month editing papers about drills. As the Phoenix Mars lander scoops and studies the martian soil, many scientists and engineers here on Earth are devising and testing drills that will go far deeper. Extraterrestrial drilling—digging meters into the crust of the Moon, Mars, Venus, comets, asteroids—is a complicated and engrossing topic in astrobiology. It’s totally awesome!

So I gazed at this drill in downtown Portland. It had a coring bit, more than a meter in diameter and several meters long. The coring bit dug into the soil for some distance; then it was pulled out so that the soil could be dumped and the empty coring bit pushed farther into the soil—to make that hole deeper!

It also looked to be a wireline drill. That is, the pressure and power to dig didn’t come from directly above the drill bit. Instead, a thick metal attachment on the side of the drill applied the force to push into the soil. Meanwhile, power was sent to the drill via a thick black cord (wire) that ran down to the drill bit.

Mind you, I’m not an expert at this. I don’t even know that I’m very good at describing it. The point is I’m amazed at what editing teaches me, with what worlds it connects me. What would I have cared about drills before this month? I would have seen this machine as an ugly, noisy beast. Well, ok, it is still ugly and noisy. But it’s also a drill! And, some day, one of its kin will provide us with samples of soil, rock, and ice from another planet.

Drill stuff:

Learn about the DAME drill at this NASA Ames Research Center website. DAME is an automated drill that, in a modest way, thinks for itself.

Also learn about DAME from the Haughton-Mars Project and Astrobiology Magazine.

See the MARTE drill, another NASA project.

Astronauts on Apollo 15, 16, and 17 used an electric drill on the Moon. (This is a great site if you like the Moon and you like tools!)

The Soviets had an automated drill on their Luna 20 mission to the Moon. Here’s a neat little diagram of Luna 20 (labeled in Russian).

And I suppose I should mention that the July issue of Astrobiology will feature several papers about extraterrestrial drilling.

The DAME drill: There is nothing like a DAME!

Image credits: NASA Ames

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. … The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.”Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. on Obama’s winning the Democratic presidential nomination (Politico June 5, 2008).

So, the Multnomah Outdoor Cinema kicks off another season tonight with a showing of “Men in Black”. Just like last year, it looks to be a hot night coming up, so if you can’t sleep - might as well head on into the village and catch the film.
Good film schedule this year - I’m definitely […]

Rose left this comment on my previous post about the church building on Hawthorne that was being torn down… “Bob, I hear you. We live next door to a church building. When we moved into the neighborhood 7 years ago it was a church in decline. We met them but they didn’t believe we were really “saved” because we were not KJV only…our son and neighborhood kids used the parking lot to learn to ride bikes, play basketball etc. We never saw more than a 10 people there at one time. Last summer a new pastor came in to revitalize…

Anyone who is an artist or simply loves art is invited to join Kat and I at our new design site here on Ning. Simply go to http://tamedlyondesigns.ning.com/ and check it out.
Namaste,
Jeff and Kat

From the Little Miracles books
By Mel Kaufmann
kaufmannmelvin@charter.net

Conversation Conclusion

This is the conclusion you use when a person does not represent a business opportunity. Some conversations need a conclusion sooner than others. If the conversation is going nowhere and keeps going around and around like a merry-go-round and ends where you began, terminate it quickly! I give you four suggestions to terminate a conversation: 1) “I’ve enjoyed meeting you. I know you have other people you would like to meet and I’ve others I would like to meet. I’m look­ing forward to seeing you again.” 2) “Where are the hors d’oeuvres?” 3) Introduce the person you are terminating to another and make a graceful exit. 4) “Where is the restroom?” I have discovered termination number one to be the most effective. End the communication exchange within five minutes and begin another. This Miracle is better than winning the lottery.

A conclusion can be a beginning